‘All blacks out!’: Human Rights Watch condemns ‘racist’ Greek police

Human Rights Watch has accused Greek police of racial profiling, arbitrary detention and physical and verbal abuse of immigrants in a scathing new report. All are in violation European Union regulations, and disobey international human rights conventions.

The report by the international advocacy group, titled ‘Unwelcome Guests’, focuses on Operation
Xenios Zeus, a radical police initiative commenced in August last
year under which 85,000 suspected illegal immigrants have been
detained and taken to police stations to have their visas
checked.

It says the operation is not only illegal, but also ineffective,
with only 6 per cent of those detained found to be in breach of
immigration law.

“Police mistreatment of migrants and asylum seekers is a
longstanding, serious problem in Greece,” said Eva Cossé, the
author of the report.

“Official statistics and our research demonstrate that the
police are casting an extraordinarily wide net, and subjecting
individuals with a legal right to be in Greece, including
tourists, to treatment prohibited by international law.”

Due to its geographical location, Greece is the first country
through which two thirds of illegal immigrants enter the European
Union, according to its border agency Frontex.

As a result of the influx, which has been bolstered by conflicts
in Iraq, Afghanistan, and more recently in the Middle East, a
virtual immigrant ghetto has sprung up in an Athens district and
the port city of Patras.

The Greeks government estimates that there are up to a million
illegal immigrants in the country – nearly 10 per cent of the
population.

Operation Xenios Zeus aimed to re-seal the country’s borders, and
weed out the illegal aliens, while bringing order to troublesome
neighborhoods.

But HRW says police are simply using it as a pretext to terrorize
mostly innocent immigrants on the streets.

In a typical story from one of the 50 immigrants they
interviewed, police simply stopped a public bus at a central
Athens station, and said “All blacks out!” before marching
the suspects to the nearest station for document checks. Many say
they were strip searched and shouted at by the officers, even
before they were asked for any papers.

Most immigrants whose appearance varied from those of ethnic
Greeks said they had been stopped and asked to show their ID up
to several times a day, and many accused them of overt racism.

“Investing so many resources just to catch the wrong people
and release them afterward is a huge waste,” Cossé said.

“If the authorities are serious about improving security on
the streets of Athens and controlling irregular immigration, they
should focus on real criminals and base police operations on
evidence and intelligence, not stereotypes.”

When faced with the accusations of human rights violations from
HRW, Greek police has defended the effectiveness of Xenios Zeus,
and its procedural methods.

“When an operation is ordered in the center of Athens it is
reasonable for a police officer to bring to the station whoever
they can who has the characteristics of an immigrant,” said
an official at the Hellenic Police Guards Union of Attica.

A representative of the Police Association of Border Guards of
Attica, another police union, said ethnic profiling during spot
checks was also justified. He said it was acceptable to detain
and verify the documents of “all persons who don't look Greek.
Many times we also check Greeks too who don’t look Greek.”

A report from another respected advocacy group Amnesty
International in December last year came to similar conclusions,
but elicited no response from the Greek authorities, which have
prolonged Operation Xenios Zeus indefinitely.